


I've Got Instincts of My Own

by venefica_aura (crankyoldman)



Series: Empire [4]
Category: Final Fantasy VIII
Genre: Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-28
Updated: 2009-11-28
Packaged: 2017-10-03 22:54:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crankyoldman/pseuds/venefica_aura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Quistis is a General of the Empire now, even if her reasons are less than martial.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I've Got Instincts of My Own

**Author's Note:**

> Well, I managed to eek out another one-shot in the _Empire_ arc, and it's been... god a long time. I really like Quistis most when she's big sisterly, so that probably colored this a lot, as well as attempted to advance the general "plot" which really works backwards, if you think about it. Since, ah, the last time I worked on any of these stories was freaking _2007_, I'll link to the other ones in the arc, since this was references both of them: [Perfect Color Me](http://community.livejournal.com/viniel/54137.html), and [Choke Until I Swallow](http://community.livejournal.com/viniel/54298.html). I'll prolly do another Quistis POV one because this one was shorter, plus it's fun?

When Quistis stopped to think about it, there was something ridiculous about the fact she was a General now.

It had been programmed into her--if she wanted to use such a cold term--that advancement and success would bring her some measure of happiness. Of course, the near end of time and space had proved that it wasn't _all_ that she'd needed or wanted. Quistis needed _them_ as much as she needed success.

Which brought her here. Here to the place where the armies of the Empire converged. The new Capitol. And she wasn't even _leading_ them really. Squall and she were deligation, somewhere in the chain.

"How have the hunts been going?" When Rinoa walked in now, Quistis could swear there was a rustle of silk. Only she still wore that innocent sort of cotton sky blue and logic dictated it wouldn't make that sound.

"We lost Captain Xu, but Fujin has been neutralized." _Neutralized?_

Rinoa, though Empress, wasn't completely heartless. She was still just as emotional as the girl that Quistis used to teach history and politics to. Only now others could feel it too, to some extent.

Rinoa's momentary sadness felt like a cold wet cloth on the back of Quistis's neck. She shivered.

She wasn't meant to be a General. Quistis should have stopped her ambition at an Instructor. She'd come so close to being reinstated to that, considering her success with Rinoa. It had taken quite a bit of energy to calm the directionless rebellion into its own form of ambition.

"Well, we should at least give Xu a service of some kind."

Quistis couldn't help but be _proud_ of how Rinoa had finally taken to her education. Resisting, resisting, and then it was like the veil had finally been lifted. Even the magic came to her more easily once she got past the block in her mind.

She could see things that others couldn't see. Rinoa knew _intent_. With that she had secured Esthar. The entire nation had owed them for the eradication of the monsters from the Lunar Cry. With Esthar, she secured a foothold on the world.

The sadness throbbed again. Quistis would get dizzy at this rate.

She put her arms around Rinoa's small shoulders. "This is the price of revolution, Rinoa. You know that."

Quistis simply _had_ to believe it too.

\---

The swish of braided hair alerted her to his presence. Irvine was so much quieter now, and if she wasn't already used to him it would have been kind of creepy how he skulked around. Part of it was Selphie leaving--a long story that she didn't want to think about at the moment. This place was so much colder than Garden, with its white walls and tall windows. Estharian construction.

"You hear about Xu?"

"Yeah."

That was all that needed to be said about that.

Quistis could tell that Irvine was junctioned, his eyes always looked slightly different. That was the real change. No one else would have noticed, but that was the thing about blue magic.

She couldn't ignore the purr and hiss of them. The _monsters_. She couldn't let go of them either.

"Has Zell come back?"

They'd sent him to Timber. Quistis was starting to wonder if something was amiss, considering they hadn't heard from him.

"Nope, and no word either."

Her family was falling apart.

\---

Most of the people they were fighting were much older and wiser. But they'd gotten comfortable. They couldn't stand up to a bunch of kids that had been trained since they were old enough to walk. Their parents--the first ones, the _only_ ones, not those faceless people that had them in interim while they were split up--had given them that at least. She, for one, wasn't angry about it like Selphie had been, or haunted like Irvine was.

It didn't hurt that to some, they were heroes. It didn't hurt that their original enemies had been taken care of in the euphoria left behind the romantic story that had been Saving the World, whatever that meant.

Even now, after the capture orders, she couldn't be bothered by it. Because they all had to be together, and sometimes that meant other people got lost. Calculated damages.

To Quistis, there was no dungeon in the basement, and Squall hadn't gone down there to beat anything out of captives. He was just reasoning with an unruly brother, and she was waiting for word on the others.

Her instincts told her that this was the way things should have been, and would be. Casualties were a necessary part of both families and wars.

So she wiped her eyes with her sleeve, because she was a General now.


End file.
